And it's all your state of mind

Battlestar Galactica 4.04-4.06: Anna gets caught up

Dude, I am severely behind on my Battlestar review posts! Part of this, I have to admit, is that to some degree BSG is just not engaging me as heavily this season; the unremitting grim of the show is no longer adequately offset by likable aspects of the characters. I'm not feeling the Roslin love this season (with the exception, I grant, of episode 4.06), Lee has become a lot less interesting to me now that he's gone off to join the Quorum of Twelve, and even my and solarbird's TV Girlfriend Starbuck has gotten just a touch too crazy for me to really like as much anymore. In fact, the only character I'm still rather liking is Sam.

All that said, though, I'm still definitely intrigued by the overall events going on. The last three episodes have given us some tasty WTFery, and the whole building Cylon civil war? Booya. BRING IT.

Okay, episode #4, "Escape Velocity", went a pretty far way to making me generally cranky at most of the cast--especially that bit where the Chief explodes and says all those nasty things about Cally in the bar to Adama. I was really rather bludgeoned by Cally's unfortunate end to begin with--and now, although the direction it's taking Galen as a character is kind of necessary, it's still not very pleasant to watch.

On the other hand, the scenes in this episode with Tigh and Caprica!Six? FUCKED UP, and intriguingly so. Tigh was never particularly likable to begin with, and I'd always expected he was going to go fairly nuts after Ellen died--but seeing it happen here was very intense and gripping. Particularly the parts where he was hallucinating Ellen's face on Caprica!Six's head; very nicely spliced in there, effects crew!

As of episode #5, "The Road Less Traveled", Baltar's growing religious influence in the Fleet is starting to get some real legs--and it intrigues me that he's starting to have an impact on major members of the cast. My general crankiness at the Chief from last episode does get a bit alleviated here as Baltar actually does something laudable for once--and reaches out to the grieving Galen. Interesting character development here, for both of them.

It's starting to look like probably Sam and Galen are going to be the two of the Four that don't flip right the fuck out; Tigh is certainly well on his way to losing it, and Tory has certainly turned cold and manipulative, and I'm hoping she's the next one out the airlock.

Over on the Demetrius, we have most of the crew being real cranky at Starbuck, which annoyed me. Some crankiness was certainly warranted, but it would have been nice to see somebody besides Sam trying to stick up for her rather than everybody on the boat up and deciding to mutiny, including Helo.

Episode #6: DUDE. Now we're talkin'.

The mutiny plot ends better than I expected, with Starbuck doing something Not Stupid and compromising with Helo to get him to agree to waiting while she takes a raptor back with Leoben to the base star. Helo gets points back for this, as does Athena by agreeing to go with her.

Nice little bit there with Sam reacting to the sight of Athena sticking her hand in the control console. You could just tell he was wondering what it was like.

Good bits on the base star when the other Eights come to Athena and react to her presence. Equally interesting interactions with the Sixes--the bit with the one killing Anders' associate in cold blood, and her in turn being put to death by another of the Sixes. (Who is apparently referred to as 'Natalie', according to the Battlestar Wiki, though I hadn't picked up on that.) She was nicely visually differentiated from the other Six hair-wise, and that bit where she leaned over and kissed her sister? OH MY. ;)

Meanwhile, as mentioned above, I actually like Roslin a bit more in this episode. Seeing her deal with her cancer and interact with the other cancer patient gave her a much-needed humanizing for me, something she hasn't had much of at all so far this season. I liked how this whole plotline started challenging her about whether Baltar's preachings are right.

And last but not least... ooh, Starbuck's reaction to the Hybrid. Especially the part where the Hybrid calls her the harbinger of death. Hah, that couldn't possibly fuck Kara up any more than she already is, could it?

And, that'll do me for quick and dirty review comments. We'll see if I can do a full post for next week's episode; now, I gotta go edit something!